MANILA – Western Visayas would stick with the usual community quarantine levels by October instead of the alert level system being piloted in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“It is still premature to use it outside NCR,” said Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) has yet to assess its pilot run.
“Hayaan po nating matapos iyong pangalawang linggo ng pilot run sa NCR at tingnan natin kung ano magiging datos kasi ganoon po ‘yung proseso ng evaluation – dapat data-based,” said Roque, who also serves as IATF-MEID spokesman.
Under the new policy, granular lockdowns are enforced in areas with high coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, contrary to locking down entire provinces or regions.
The new alert levels were introduced in a bid to spur the economy severely dragged by pandemic-forced lockdowns.
Roque said there were no untoward incidents reported during the first week of the pilot run.
Based on the latest quarantine classification in Region 6, (effective until Sept. 30) Iloilo city and province and Aklan are under a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).
Bacolod City, Capiz and Antique are under general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions, and Negros Occidental and Guimaras under GCQ with no restrictions.
The new quarantine classifications for areas outside NCR are expected to be announced in President Rodrigo Duterte’s “Talk to the People” this week./PN
